The 2008-2009 SLU Cheerleaders...

The Saint Louis University
basketball team is bridging the gap between its tough, early
non-conference games, and the start of A-10 play in January. In the meantime, the team has faced some perennial
pansies (they pounded Savannah State 55-37 last weekend, and take on Samford
on Saturday.)

Since they don't face a legitimate opponent until DePaul on
Dec. 22, it's a perfect opportunity to talk about everyone's favorite on-court
distraction: co-eds with pom-poms and short skirts.

After attending the SLU-Kent State matchup last month, I
wrote about a number of changes to the program that have come with Chaifetz Arena.
One of them was a new, all-girl cheer squad, which the school has dubbed "The
SAINTsations." (As in, "when all those girls were doing back flips, it gave me
a tingling Saintsation.")

This, I remarked, is positive.

Last season there was a small army of cheerleaders on the
court during breaks in the action, including a large dance team that was
usually clad in black sequins and spandex as well as the traditional
male/female split squad that stood on the baselines and did the typical "rah
rah" stuff.

Apparently in the off-season, somebody at SLU decided that the only men on the court should be the ones playing with
balls.

The dance team and cheer squad rosters were combined and
trimmed from about 40 girls to fifteen or so. The men, presumably, were told that
being male cheerleaders would never get them laid and then sent on their merry
way.

I fully
support this decision.

Not only does it mean a more manageable number
of people on the court during timeouts, it looks to me like they took the top
20 or so girls based on the only criteria that really matters when it comes to
cheerleaders: looks.

So everybody wins with the new arrangement, right? Not so fast.

Turns out the dance squad could actually, um,
dance. They placed seventh overall in a national competition in 2007. The team
from Western Michigan, which included these girls, took first place.

The fact that the program was cut after its most successful
year and at a time when more people would be attending basketball games, didn't
sit well with some. One angry mother even went so far as to leave several
comments on the last Rundown post that mentioned cheerleaders.

So why, other than purely aesthetic purposes, was the dance
team jettisoned? Good question.

I contacted Allie McLaughlin, coach of the SAINTsations, but have yet to hear anything back.

The SLU student newspaper reported in a story earlier this year that the smaller squad
means every cheerleader can be on at least a partial scholarship.

Kosha Irby, associate director of SLU's athletic department is quoted in the article as saying that, since there are no men to launch
the girls in the air, there will be less injuries, which was apparently a
problem last year.